Foraging the secret fungi kingdom

Foraging forests for edible wild mushrooms is becoming more popular among foodies. But environmental scientist Alison Pouliot is more interested in photographing and understanding the curious fungi kingdom.

Alison Pouliot has made her last trip into the Wombat State Forest before heading off to Switzerland.

She spends several months each year overseas learning everything she can about fungi.

Every spare second she gets while she's here is spent plundering Victoria's forests - including those around Daylesford, Castlemaine and the Otways - in an attempt to uncover some of their secrets.

Just a few footsteps into the frosty native forest near Trentham, Alison finds more than five different types of fungi beneath moist leaves, under the soil and growing on tree bark.

Because most of its body, or mycelium, is hidden beneath the surface, she says the fungi world is often overlooked in comparison to the flora and fauna kingdoms, despite the fact that it could be hectares in size and is heavily interconnected with plants and wildlife.

"We only really become aware of the fungi when we see the fruit body, the actual mushroom," she says.

"Probably that invisibility and that very ephemeral nature of the fruit body explains why they're out of our consciousness most of the time."

Alison's workshops explore the secrets of the fungi kingdom; the role they play in the ecosystem and most importantly for some, how to identify which ones can be eaten.

Saffron milk caps, slippery jacks and the lawyer's wig are among the most common local edible varieties.

European and Asian cultures have been picking wild mushrooms for centuries and it's increasingly becoming a popular culinary practice in Australia.

While has seen a growing interest in foraging for a fungi feast, she says people are staying away from native varieties because little is known about them.

"At the moment, you'll find most of them really only foraging in the pine plantations more so than in the native forests, just simply because that knowledge isn't there and if you look at a European field guide, most of them will indicate edibility or toxicity whereas ours don't indicate that," Alison says.

Mushroom picking needs to be approached with great caution, as getting it wrong can be deadly.

The poisonous death cap can be mistaken for the paddy straw mushroom which is often used in Asian cuisine.

Alison says people need to be aware of the characteristics of edible species; the associated vegetation it will be found in and the nature of its cap, gills, spore and stipe.

In fact, the more she studies fungi, the more content she's becoming buying mushrooms from the grocery store.

"As I've become more aware of this great, amazing suite of fungi we have in Australia, I've realised there's lots of lookalike species to those edible ones that I was originally eating that potentially could be poisonous, so I've actually reduced the number I forage for, and prefer to spend my time photographing and documenting them."

Through her exquisite macro photos and extensive field work, Alison attempts to record the location and characteristics of native fungi and delve into this unknown world.